The Cold War led to possibly the greatest distortion of human behavior ever seen. Never before or since have so many resources been expended in a giant, man-made “what if” as the two superpowers of the age, the United States and the Soviet Union, squared off against each other.
Innovation was the name of the game (this was an arms “race” after all) but the breakneck pace at which new weapons and new technology were rushed into active service meant that corners were often cut. Some bullets were dodged, such as the potentially fatal oscillation of the center engine on the Apollo rocket that went to the Moon. But sometimes the results were catastrophic.
So it was with the Nedelin Catastrophe, named for its overall instigator and its highest ranking fatality. Chief Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, in his mad dash to find an advantage over the hated Americans, killed countless people including himself in an instant.
The year in 1960 and the place is the Baikonur test range in Kazakhstan, in the heart of the Soviet Union. Several launch decisions had cost lives before. However, no launch decision had taken as many lives as the Nedelin Catastrophe did.
In the entire history of rocketry, this explosion of a Soviet prototype R-16 rocket was by far the deadliest incident. Accidents do happen, but this catastrophe went far beyond poor planning. What happened?
The R-16 ICBM
The R-16 ICBM was the brainchild of the Soviet engineer Mikhail Yangel. Primarily intended as a replacement for R-7, it was designed to be more practical than its predecessor as its fuel did not require temperature-controlled storage.
Previously complex cryogenic systems would no longer be needed, greatly speeding up the missile preparation process with its simpler fueling mechanisms. Simply put, this cutting of response times meant that the rickets could be launched faster, a key factor in the Cold War weapons race.
However this fuel switch created other problems. The fuel that was selected for the R-16 was unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) oxidized with a combination of 27% nitrogen tetroxide and 73% nitric acid. The combination is often referred to as “the devil’s venom” as the fuels are highly corrosive, highly toxic and produce poisonous gas when burned. Foul stuff.
The commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces of the USSR, Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, was responsible for the development of the R-16. In order to boost his political profile, Nedelin decided to get the R-16 rocket ready for the Bolshevik Revolution’s anniversary.
This led to him pressure on Yangel and the entire team of R-16. The timetable for preparing the R-16 rocket was accelerated, and a number of sensible safety measures were overlooked: per the original schedule, the flight testing was to be conducted in July 1961, about 10 months later.
Owing to the rush in the development of the rocket, Yangel failed to secure his preferred team to design the R-16’s electrical guidance system. In place of Nikolai Pilyugin, who handled the major designing tasks, Boris Konoplev, a radio engineering expert and inventor, was used instead.
This was to prove disastrous.
Launch Day
There were several electrical system glitches in the R-16 rocket. Despite the glitches, the scheduled date for the launch approached and no allowances were made to fix them: the launch had to go ahead.
These problems were not easily fixed however. The membranes preventing the propellants from entering the oxidizer and fuel lines of the 2nd stage were essential to prevent an explosion, but they were under a great degree of pressure from the corrosive liquids they held in place.
The first accident was almost predictable. As the membranes were opened with explosive charges on 23rd October to prep the rocket for its launch, the fuel lines started leaking almost immediately. The leaks damaged the control system for the valves which opened to mix the fuels, and the whole system needed replacing.
Requests were made to drain the R-16 rocket so that this could be completed safely. However, Nedelin refused to do so owing to his political deadline. The launch plan was shifted to the next day, and the technicians worked on the rocket throughout the night.
On the 24th of October, it was decided to resume the launch preparations. The official government guests and started arriving to see the launch of R-16, and any further delay would lead to unacceptable loss of face. A viewing stand was set up several hundred meters (1,000 feet) away from the pad.
At the scheduled launch time, there were nearly 250 people in the immediate area around the rocket. The launch time, already delayed due to the membrane breach of the previous day, approached rapidly and there was little time to complete the pre-launch operations and multiple tests. Under pressure from their superiors, the technicians rushed through the tests as quickly as they could.
The rocket had an automatic control system that was used for sending signals to different components of the missile. During testing, it was found out that the control system was not in a condition for launch.
Under pressure to stick to the schedule for the launch, one of the technicians gave the order to reset the launch condition of the automatic control system. This accidentally resulted in a signal being sent to open the second-stage engines’ propellant line valves.
Instantly, the second stage engine caught fire, which led to the explosion of the first stage fuel tanks that were directly below, filled with devil’s vemon. The giant fireball engulfed the launch pad. The movie camera that was in place in order to record the launch of R-16 only captured the unfolding disaster instead.
The massive explosion killed a number of people almost instantly. Many more fell off the pad, struggling to put off the toxic flames and escape the blaze. According to the reports, many people were also trapped by a perimeter fence and were unable to escape the waves of burning propellants. If your rocket explosion reaches the outermost fence of your cosmodrome, you have got something very wrong.
The exact death toll is not known. However it is believed that nearly 100 people died in the accident. This included Marshal Nedelin and nearly 70 engineers and officers. Luckily, Yangel escaped the accident as he, along with another official, had gone for a cigarette break just a few minutes before the accident.
Cause and Aftermath
As per the published reports, one of the major causes of the explosion was a failed block in the electrical system. The block was responsible for preventing signals from reaching the rocket’s operational portions during the testing phase.
The failure of the block resulted in the activation signal being sent to the second stage. While the main cause of the accident was the electrical inhibitor failure, there were various other underlying causes. Some of the main issues behind the disaster were the poor design of the R-16, the rush in the testing and development of the rocket, and the ignoring of different safety procedures.
After the accident took place, the First Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, imposed complete secrecy on the events. An investigation of the site was ordered. In the investigation, it was found out that there were more people present on the launch pad than actually allowed. Later, in the first half of the 1960s, a memorial was erected for the victims of the Nedelin Catastrophe in the Park of Baikonur. But the west was kept unaware of the disaster, only learning of what had happened in 1989.
It does not do to show weakness to your enemy, it would seem.
Top Image: The Nedelin Catastrophe killed many people, including Marshal Nedelin himself. Source: Elen31 / Adobe Stock.
By Bipin Dimri
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